Records of Repeat

Bassist Eric Axelson and drummer Joe Easley have been holding down steady yet peculiar rhythms together for almost 30 years, ever since Easley joined Axelson in Washington, DC’s legendary Dismemberment Plan in the mid-1990s. The Plan played many shows in those days with the Vehicle Birth, a group from nearby Fairfax that counted guitarist Leigh […]

Liam Gallagher played an intimate show last night at the recently restored London club KOKO, and he ended it with a surprise cover. After a set that mixed Oasis classics with Gallagher’s solo material, he wrapped up the encore with “Are You Experienced?”, the title track and closer from the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 debut […]

London’s Tube Alloys play post-punk, but not like some of the more prominent UK bands of recent vintage played post-punk. Their style hearkens back to Wire, Swell Maps, and the Fall — blunt and shouty rather than cerebral and talky, with big choruses that remind me of, I don’t know, “Academy Fight Song”? They have […]

A few weeks ago, the 1975 were headlining the first date of Kuala Lampur’s Good Vibes Festival — a name that become more ironic every day — when frontman Matty Healy took it upon himself to criticize Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws and kiss bassist Ross McDonald. As a result, the 1975’s set was cut short, and […]

The young Ontario band Arm’s Length play a hearty, hard-charging brand of emo, the kind you throw your whole self into without any care about what’s cool. When the approach hits, it really hits, as on today’s new single “Up In Smoke.” At less than three minutes, the track feels epic. It begins in a […]